Eskom Backtracks on Pollution Pledge, Risking World Bank Ire

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the world’s biggest emitter of the toxin sulfur dioxide, presented a study that argues against the cost of installing equipment to limit emissions, risking a breach of a World Bank loan agreement and riling environmental activists.

The South African utility said retrofitting so-called wet flue-gas desulfurization, or FGD, units at its Medupi power plant would amount to 383 billion rand ($24 billion) in installation and running costs until the potential closure of the facility in 2071. By comparison, an offset program to supply local communities with clean cooking equipment to replace the use of coal would be 5.1 billion rand, it said.